A Disney princess movie with a vengeance, the CG animated Frozen offers up no less than two princesses for the marketing department to turn into ancillary merchandise: one sweet and plucky (voiced by Kristen Bell); the other (Idina Menzel) cursed with the ability to freeze whatever she touches, with no Professor X around to whisk her away to the Institute. Plus, there's an overload of songs, a surfeit in comedy relief characters -- including a loyal reindeer, a tribe of over-enthusiastic trolls, and a hyper-over-enthusiastic snowman (Josh Gad) -- and some seriously stunning production design, taking full advantage of the stuff that seems to work best in 3D. Too bad swirling snowflakes can't quite make up for weak plotting.
Cinefantastique Online's Steve Biodrowski and Dan Persons sit down to weigh Frozen's stature in the pantheon of Disney fairy-tale adaptations, explore the knots that animators tie themselves into in courting their princess-loving core demo without antagonizing the rest of the potential audience, and debate the creators' cautious approach to their tale's Freudian aspects. Click on the link to open player window, or right-click to download.
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